Zoe - Golden Girl Thread
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
I’m <gulp> 61, and I don’t
know how that happened! It seems like one day I was just meandering along, minding my own business, not bothering a soul, and 61 just crept up on me from behind, threw a big ole’ net over my head and
caught me. I’d say this actually started to happen back around the end of last year, when I found myself huffing and puffing carrying a few small grocery bags, a briefcase and a purse up the few little stairs into my house. My 61st birthday in April was just the “official date”, but I’ve been feeling old and decrepit for a while, now. I’d been smoking for <
smusheldyfudge> years –
not a habit, you understand: I just
LIKED smoking. (Yeah, right!) So, anyway, I stopped on January 1st, gained about <
smusheldyfudge> pounds on top of the extra weight I was ALREADY carrying around (Smoking, incidentally, for those who have never done it, most decidedly does NOT keep you slim!) and since late April of this year, I have been on a mission to get healthy/lose weight/tone up and hopefully live long enough to enjoy a lengthy and carefree retirement with my dearest of h’s, who is my second, but very best possible H, ever! I got a mountain bike for my (April) birthday, and have been riding it faithfully ever since (I actually remembered how! I fully expected to be just like the little guy on the tricycle on “Laugh In” who would pedal like mad and fall right over on his side. AND, if you remember him, you’re almost as old as me!!! )
I live in central Massachusetts, work in Boston (@ 40 miles away) as a writer of grants, public relations material, magazine & news articles, and whatever else I need to write in order to raise money for the very large international organization that employs me. My DH is a software engineer by day and an artist/writer/all around interesting and fun person evenings and weekends. He pooped out on the bike riding, though. (We got one for him, too, so we could ride together. He says it hurts his knees. Tsk!) We have two khats,
Yoko, a pure black short-hair with big, pretty green eyes, and
Daisy, a great big fluffy grey girl with blue eyes. We got them both from a local shelter and have had them for about a year and a half. They effectively run the house now, but we don’t mind. Somebody has to make all the important decisions, after all, and we hate doing that ourselves! We all live together in a restored Victorian house that we like very much because it has extra bedrooms for my children (DH has none, but is a wonderful step-pop to mine) to come and visit often. I have three lovely daughters, ages 37, 35, and 30 – and one baby son, 26, whom I used to call “Baby Huey” (yet another “dated” reference.) He’s 6’7, and I think he’s finally stopped growing. My girls are all married – I have two lovely granddaughters, ages 16 and 7, and two handsome grandsons, ages 12 and 5 – and they all live here in Massachusetts; two here in the same town as us, and one – my eldest girl - an hour and a half away. My son <sob> moved out to Los Angeles two years ago to work on his masters degree at UCLA and has decided to live there permanently. He comes home to visit twice a year – at Christmas, and usually in June. He was just here, and we had a great visit together.
DIET / EXERCISE REGIMEN:
Well, calling it a “regimen” may be a bit of a stretch, but I am doing low cal/high fiber, and drinking lots and lots of water and liquids. I haven’t been counting my calories too precisely, which may account for my recent loss of “ounces” as opposed to pounds. I’m planning to really get SERIOUS, here! I Also ride my bike every day unless it’s REALLY pouring out…I’ll ride if it’s just sprinkling. But, what with the no smoking and not eating sweets (yet
another one of my old downfalls) AND exercising regularly, I really am feeling better and healthier, and the weight is dropping off very slowly but surely. (Stop laughing, Phyllis!!!!
)
SPECIAL HOPES/ASPIRATIONS/ACHIEVEMENTS/CHALLENGES:
I just want to be as healthy as possible for as long as possible and look my best. Actually, I’d really like to look like I did 30 years ago….if I could do that, along with everything I’ve learned since then, I’d being doing pretty danged well! I also want to RETIRE with DH in no more than 5 years, sell our place up here, move to the Charlotte, North Carolina area, and live like king & queen for the rest of our lives! (But I want to be slim & svelte while we’re doing it. Scrap that “back to 30” aspiration; I’m a realist. I’ll settle for 35.)
And thaaaaaas’ all, folks!
Z